[Closed] Mayhem tips and stories

I'm still taking CX tyres, just in case.

too much negativity. I'm leaving the SB8 on and not looking again at the weather .....

More sunburn and I'm literally full of dust today from strimming and blowing in the woods. Lovely.

Nice one - cheers Tang!

Getting excited now.......

blowing in the woods.

10hrs in the woods today with Vin Cox. Trails are in lovely condition. Poss a bit of rain to come...got some great pics of the trails but too knackered to post up!

Cheers Tang!

Saw the forecast - hopefully it'll change though! Good to hear trails are in good condition!

....lots of horse fly.

Just pedalled past (but not in). It's warm and muggy now so if there's a bit of rain that'll reduce the mugginess, might be a bit greasy afterwards though.

Forecast taken a turn for the worst. BBC and Met Office have thunder and lightening on Saturday afternoon, who got me into this???

Not there this year unfortunately but I did my first solo last year and after my first stop to refuel I got my wife (who was my pit bitch) to write solo down the back of each leg with eye liner. Seemed to help a lot as I was passed,and passed,and passed......had seen it in 2012 ( sorry to mention it) and thought it was a good idea.

A fire pit.

2012? I thought there was a general agreement we'd never mention the 2012 MM again. The horror, the horror!

*Twitch, gibber*

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Well if you will ride a fat bike... 😉

That photo isn't me I just google image searched '2012 Mountain Mayhem" and too my pick from the avalanche of misery that came back.

Looks like Terrahawk in that pic. At one point I was descending back to arena and Terrahawk was pushing that monster [i]and[/i] another bike up the un-rideable mudfest hill. 2 bike hill push...grrrr!

2012 - the year I officially retired from racing...

[url= https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7113/7432114968_07c312359a_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7113/7432114968_07c312359a_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/cjKwRf ]Mountain Mayhem 2012 - Race Days[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexleigh/ ]Alex Leigh[/url], on Flickr

I wrote about it here: http://pickled-hedgehog.com/?p=2694 - I didn't actually ride my bike for about a month afterwards. People talk about it but if you weren't there, you just cannot imagine the horror!

Forecast looks better this weekend!

That was my favourite mayhem.
Riding the moving river of mud back down towards the arena was the funniest thing I've ever experienced on a bike.

.

I rode 2012 with 1.3'' mud tyres and even they clogged.

The changeover area IORC ws about 4'' deep in slop.

Makes me twitch thinking about it.

Still not taking my SB8 off as we've gone passed the point of me getting anything to replace it 🙁

It will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry, it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,it will be nice, it will be dry,

It won't.

😉

Rode/ran/carried/walked all of 2012 using 1.5" Mud Sharks and a Lefty fork, still clogged a fair bit. Carried the bike to transition to save it getting too bad on the way, gears started skipping 200yds into the lap. Happy days 😕 😆

Well since we're talking about bad MMs, it was 2004 which was started in a deluge and then dried which sounds good but meant that the mud turned to plasticine for a few laps. Or 2007 which rained though the whole race. Last one I did...

it was 2004 which was started in a deluge and then dried which sounds good but meant that the mud turned to plasticine

I've got a feeling that was the one that put me off MM completely. I've done 24/12 ever since because they have the advantage of an all-weather course. The thing about that race at Eastnor is that the deluge didn't actually last for very long. In fact, here in Wales we wouldn't even consider it a deluge. 😆 But it made the course 50%+ unrideable.

We gave up some time in the dark preferring to drink beer rather than push our bikes around the hills. Even knowing that he was on his last lap of the night (possibly weekend) Ed, a very decent rider, launched his bike into the undergrowth in a temper tantrum about the crap course.

In the dark I may have chatted (or rather whinged and bitched) to Mark Webber of F1 fame. It was difficult to tell, being dark and both covered head to toe in mud from numerous slides. And I was too busy swearing to ask.

(I'm thinking that 2004 isn't what I'm describing up there. Were there a couple of years of bad weather around then? Did I do a couple of MMs at Eastnor?)

In 2012 during an early morning lap I was halted on the trail buy a family (?) of Stoats or Weasels crossing the trail.

There was no one around to confirm or deny whether I was tired and imagining it or if they were there.

Weird.

2004 was the first one at Eastnor and featured the 'deluge'. 2005 was also bad as was 2007. IIRC 2006 was lovely and dry (but dusty...)

Well since we're talking about bad MMs, it was 2004 which was started in a deluge and then dried which sounds good but meant that the mud turned to plasticine for a few laps. Or 2007 which rained though the whole race. Last one I did...

It's very very humid today on course, but fantastic.

2001 - heatwave
2003 - heatwave. Marshals set fire to the course.
2004/5 - mudfest but dried. 2004 was worse as the first year we were at eastnor there was a lot of cut grass and field edge. Remember Land Rover hill and the field of doom?
2006 - nice. The year I solo'd. Lucky!
2007 - mudfest
2008 - muddy at the start but dried
2009 - ok
2010 - cold overnight but ok
2011 - ok
2012 - horrendous flooding
2013 - rained intermittently, course slippy but rideable. Not like eastnor.
2014 - heatwave

Yes I've done all of those... 2012 was the only DNF as it was just silly. The most fun was using a 350bhp V8 4WD S4 to get out of the field at about 5pm Saturday... Reverse onto the good grass and.... Speed! It worked.

2004/5 - mudfest but dried. 2004 was worse as the first year we were at eastnor there was a lot of cut grass and field edge. Remember Land Rover hill and the field of doom?

My 2 years of MM - still have the bikemagic photos, it's what convinced me to get an alfine all weather hardtail.

Land rover hill, "oh, do I take the left hand rut of slurry or the right hand rut of slurry", followed by skirting a badly chopped corn field which delighted in eating mech hangers/derailuers and then the trek through the strimmed bracken of doom.. There was that little jump thing with the lads from mtbwales? cheering everyone, which was nice.

Trail dried right out and gave you a racing line on the 2nd day but by then I was shattered.

Would do 24/12 more often (just the once so far), but it's a bugger to get to from ireland.